Granville County Life: Thanksgiving 2015

Dear Folks, Thanksgiving

Ashley and I are up early. It is 9:00 a.m. We are thankful that our God is one who does nothing halfway. We are indelibly pleased to worship a God who is sovereign over all things, all nations, all people, all beasts, all of nature . . . all.

We are pleased that our God is able to fight evil without us. He says "Vengeance is Mine." That means to me that I should not try to get people back when they persecute me. Jesus makes it clear in John 15

(which I remember because I read it to my wife this evening in Sheetz during our annual Thanksgiving celebration. We do not eat turkeys, or cook stuff at home for Thanksgiving. We just go to Sheetz and get the two for a dollar hotdog deal. It is great for us.

Plus, we are neither picky nor fancy. Au contraire, we are easily satisfied with the most simple fare. For us, the only thing that matters is that we walk with Jesus in all that we do.

We know that other "gods" must rely on their believers to fight their wars for them. For example, Dr. Heimbach, my ethics professor extraordinaire, tells us that Allah cannot fight, but needs believers to fight for him. OK. That sounds like a rather weak god, not one I would be pleased to worship.

So, I am thankful that my God has all power, and uses it continuously in perfect accordance with His plan, meaning when we see what we think is evil, we know God allows it in His perfect response, a part of His perfect plan. I pray we place ever greater confidence in that plan.

Small Things:
1. I am thankful that I caught the Lyme's Disease this past summer, and that it stayed with me giving me piercing headaches for several months. That was the greatest blessing I can imagine, inasmuch as having a fine force to deal with and knock down my incipient pride wherever it threatens to rear its ugly pumpkin head.
2. I am thankful that the Holy Spirit saw fit to use my oldest son's psychosis to bring him closer to the Lord. He began singing hymns throughout the day, reading and memorizing Holy Scripture, and was endowed with a newfound willingness to read the Bible during our Bible study and worship sessions each night.
3. I am thankful that the Holy Spirit saw fit to work through my wife's GAD and SPD to bring her closer to Him. She attended Small Group several times this past spring, until we made our exodus from the HOA home we formerly inhabited, up until July the 2nd of this year.
4. I am thankful to have a God who walks with me throughout the day. I am thankful that He has seen fit to endow me with a wife who:
A) has been a helpmate to me exceeding any I could have foreseen in accordance with my own, limited planning capacity.
B) upon our first meeting readily agreed to follow the Bible as our basis of truth to sort out any future disagreements;

C) is the type of woman who is always interesting, a never-ending source of surprises, a fount of the unexpected on a quotidian basis -- for example, I did not expect to walk in the house yesterday afternoon after being gone all day, to discover that my intrepid better half had taken apart the wood stove, ash tray, stove pipe (into pieces), screws laying in a pile on the banister, and had been scrubbing the stove clean.

I am thankful that God has been my bulwark in all adversity.

My five children and I went on a trip yesterday to the local YMCA, where we juggled in the gym amidst basketball players, at mid-court off to one side, then later in a racquetball court, where we enjoyed freedom from interference by bouncing basketballs.
I am thankful that we have a YMCA which will let us come swim, do rock climbing, juggle, and whatnot for only 30 dollars per month. That is a good deal, thanks to my low income student status.

Here is a video of Gideon in his winter doggie hut.

Sincerely, Nathaniel